A Texas high school teacher became visibly emotional in front of his students after discovering that the seniors in his classroom were unable to complete a basic writing assignment.
Darius Williams, who teaches at Wheatley High School in the Houston Independent School District, said the problem became impossible to ignore during the first class period on only the second day of school.
Speaking in an Instagram video recorded during his lunch break Tuesday, Williams said he had just come out of a three-hour class when he “literally broke down” in the middle of the lesson.
Williams, who works as a New Education System (NES) Career and Technical Education (CTE) staff member, said he asked a room of high school seniors to read two short paragraphs and finish a sentence he had largely set up for them already.
According to Williams, the students still could not complete it. He said the teens, many of them 17 and 18 years old, were unable to supply just four missing words despite the amount of help he had provided.
Williams said he walked the class through the scenario, annotated the material with them and essentially gave them the answers before they were expected to respond, leaving him at a loss over where the breakdown is happening.
Fighting back tears, the Houston teacher said that by day two he was already facing seniors who, in his view, could not read at the expected level and could not express themselves in writing.
With red eyes and tears on his face, Williams emphasized that his students are able to speak, think through arguments and defend their ideas verbally, but struggle to transfer those same abilities onto the page.
“Our young black men, our young brown men, our young black girls, and our young brown girls,” Williams said as he began to sob before ending the video.
Williams faced backlash after posting the video as critics called out the teacher’s qualifications to be able to speak about his students’ literacy troubles.
The teacher and part-time cooking influencer showed off his second bachelor’s degree earned from Berklee College of Music back in April, then claimed he was enrolled in a master’s program at the American College of Education where he is studying for Curriculum and Instruction.
He also listed the numerous certifications that he holds, including with the state of Texas and the Texas Education Agency.
“I have all of my certifications lined up,” Williams shared in a follow-up video.
“For those of you who may have an issue or problem with me teaching young adults, take the charge, you do it. You get certified walk into these high schools, you get a classroom, you stand in front of 22 kids each period and let me see how well you do,” he said.
Williams’ breakdown in the middle of class came days after it was revealed that a majority of New York City students between third and fifth grades failed their English Language Arts tests last school year.
Preliminary results released this week by the state Education Department found 57% of 3rd graders, 52% of 4th graders and 57% of 5th graders all got failing marks on their tests in the 2025-2026 academic calendar.
Just 48% of students in the testing grades, 4th-8th, rated proficient in ELA — a “significant” 5% plunge from the previous year, the department said.
